National Church Institutions Gender Pay Gap Data
The Church of England has published this document: National Church Institutions Gender Pay Gap Data.
Some press coverage of this:
The Times (behind a paywall) Church of England reveals 40% gender pay gap
Telegraph Church of England reveals 41 per cent gender pay gap in central office
Christian Today Church of England HQ has worse gender pay gap than BBC
We haven’t seen any press release about this, but the daily emailed media report from Church House Westminster had this comment:
Figures show that the pay difference between men and women for nearly three-quarters of staff is less than one per cent, and for half of staff there is no gap in pay. However there are significant differences in the mean and median salaries overall.
A spokesperson is quoted saying: “The data shows where we have more work to do in reducing the difference in pay between men and women in more highly paid roles, and improving the ratio of men to women in the most senior and most junior roles.”
According to the Telegraph report, the spokesperson also said:
“We are taking steps to address these issues including reviewing our job evaluation and pay methodology and making changes to our recruitment strategy to attract a greater diversity of candidates.”
The key to understanding the “gap” lies in this table:
So have the papers misunderstood the way the statistics are presented? Doesn’t it mean that there are more men than women in senior posts, not that men and women doing similar jobs are paid differently?
“Figures show that the pay difference between men and women for nearly three-quarters of staff is less than one per cent, and for half of staff there is no gap in pay.” A very ingenious statistical construct….in the absence of any explanation it could mean that the average pay of the top 75% of women is the same as the bottom 75% of men. That is entirely consistent with a very large disparity overall. It’s a piece of spin which would have been better left out. If any part of Government put something out like this, the Statistics Authority would… Read more »
Do these figures reflect the salary gap by gender for comparable jobs? If there are more men in senior positions because of past selection policies, then this is more likely to be a reflection of the church’s past attitude to women rather than equality of pay. It will take time and a proactive approach to redress this imbalance rather than focussing on salaries.
It’s a bit misleading. The stats here are only for the National Church Institutions lay staff. Clergy pay is not included.
I also noted that ‘bonuses for male investment staff are significantly larger on average, with men receiving £10,150 compared to women’s average of £4,475.’ Wouldn’t it be nice to see clergy getting bonuses for preaching well, or handling tricky pastoral situations? As it is, our reward is in heaven. And maybe that’s as well.
I was a scientist who used statistics rather than a statistician but it seems to me that, like the other information on gender and pay released by the BBC and others, the statistics don’t really tell us what they were supposedly introduced to demonstrate: 1) are people paid the same for doing comparable jobs (allowing for pay progression in a job, etc) and 2) is there equality in employment at all levels in the organisation? There will be a historical bias in employment that will be working through the system in time, and some people will not be employed full… Read more »
I’m looking forward to seeing the Telegraph publish it’s own “gender pay gap” figures..
In the meantime at least we know that the 7000ish paid vicars are all on almost identical “stipends”…. which is, of course, based on income needed to live reasonably, rather than recompense for responsibilities or expenses of ministry (which are refunded). However it might be interesting to explore why senior clergy, Deans and Bishops *need more to live reasonably*… in ministry and in retirement!?
This “pay gap” is an epic piece of goalpost moving: since far fewer organizations dare pay women less for equivalent work (an odious attack on natural justice rightly banned), it’s rejigged to refer to an average for the sexes, an average that takes no account of legitimate reasons such as different career choices, working part time, etc.
I’ll readily call the church out, and if it’s discriminating on the basis of sex without even the fig-leaf of theology, I wish it a roasting. But I’ll not assume its guilt without further evidence as to the reasons for the inequality.
I think it is almost certainly the case that the figures are indicative of a bias towards having men in more senior jobs. But the same is true of all other organisations which publish similar statistics. The use of the median for each gender means that the salaries paid at the very top (e.g.in the BBC) don’t affect things. This is not about the fat cats but about the generality of employees. James, Mary and others suggest that it will take time for the disparities to work through. The papers have noted that the ratio of medians for the Church… Read more »
A Statistician is quite right and grasps exactly how ‘bad’ these figures are — IF you think equality is a Christian ideal (I do).
However, the leaders of the CofE have never claimed to support equality so far as I can remember. It would be better to be like the Catholics and openly eschew it altogether. At least that would be honest.
Those looking for a Christian denomination for whom equality is central should consider joining the Quakers – see their Statement of Faith
https://www.quaker.org.uk/about-quakers
“Figures show that the pay difference between men and women for nearly three-quarters of staff is less than one per cent, and for half of staff there is no gap in pay.” This seems, in this case to mean that the lower paid 34% of men (67 out of 199) are paid on average the same as the lower paid 63% of women (159 out of 253). The absurdity of this measure can be shown by considering an organisation with only two pay rates, high and low. If all the women are paid the low rate except the manageress, and… Read more »
Here’s an example of another institution reporting its gap. Notice the difference in tone.
https://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/issues/september-online-2016/bank-england-gender-pay-gap-18-7/
And here is the figure for the Civil Service. I find it hard to think of any justification for the NCIs being material worse than the Civil Service.
“The gender pay gap for all employees, calculated as the difference between the median pay for males and females, decreased from 13.6% on 31 March 2016 to 12.7% on 31 March 2017. This measure depends on the pay of part-time employees being converted to full-time equivalent salaries. The gender pay gap for full-time employees decreased from 12.0% to 11.0%. There was a fall from 11.5% to 9.1% for part-time employees.”
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/bulletins/civilservicestatistics/2017/previous/v1#civil-service-median-salary-increases
56% of NCI staff are female. Men are particularly under-represented at the lower levels. More than 70% of the lower paid half are female. The most statistically significant reason for the high gender pay gap is the failure to recruit or retain men in lower paid roles. Is this direct discrimination? Is there an old girls network, or are female, or male, HR staff favouring women in recruitment? Or are too few men applying? Is regular church attendance a factor in recruitment? Are the men who do get recruited simply being promoted very rapidly; or leaving? Has there at any… Read more »
Thanks, T, for the very clear explanation of the three quarters issue. I do hope that the Comms Department at Church House read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it. But is it really the case that the only problem is the lack of men in junior roles? Taking on board Simon’s point that the Civil Service is a good comparator, I note from https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/bulletins/civilservicestatistics/2017#proportion-of-females-at-senior-civil-service-level-continues-to-rise that the proportion of women in the top grades of the civil service (Grades 7 and above, accounting for about 11% of the civil service as a whole) is around 45%. It’s hard to tell from… Read more »
A, No I don’t think the only problem is the lack of men in junior roles. There is a very strong preponderance of men in senior roles, and this is a very significant factor in the gender disparity. I merely meant to say that the preponderance of women in junior roles, being greater than the preponderance of men in senior roles, is the most significant factor. Most significant but far from only significant. Sorry if I did not make this clear, And yes indeed, we cannot be sure from the available data that the men are actually in more senior/responsible/skilled… Read more »